Question

How much should a "mild-moderate" accident affect price?

I'm looking into buying a loaded 08 Altima coupe. I found a candidate that looked PERFECT with a reasonable starting price (21,500). However, the dealer provides free auto-report and I noticed that the vehicle has a "mild-moderate" accident reported through a state agency with a case number included.

How much would you say this accident devalues this vehicle vs. a similar one with a clean title?

Will the dealer have any insight as to what the actual accident was?

Is there any way to use the case # on the report to find the actual report online?

All I have for you is this question: why look at spending $20k on a car with an accident history? There are plenty of undamaged '08s out there. I would not trust anything the dealer told me about the accident.

We've had a few cars hit by others and when it was time to sell them, I would not sell them privately because who would want a car with accident damage disclosed. So I have traded them in with complete disclosure to the dealer - including photographs of the damage before repaired and the receipts. My reason for doing this was to protect myself with disclosure - but it also could help a future buyer decide if it was worth buying if the info that I provided was made available.

Perfect, unhit cars I've sold privately to the first person who looked.